Skip to main content

Are fitness trackers truly for health benefits, or have they just become a trendy fashion piece?

An avid fitness fan as well as tech enthusiast, I love fitness apps and trackers. They manage to combine my love of staying healthy and tech obsession perfectly. Throughout my day, my Huawei Watch linked with Google Fit pretty perfectly tracks my steps and movement, and then come exercise time, my Fitbit Charge 2 is a perfectly capable helper.

I have noticed that as I talk to people, I find myself immediately checking their wrists for fitness trackers because I find myself genuinely curious how much people truly utilize them. While I make no judgements on a person's appearance or lifestyle, I have noticed people that where them daily seem to make little progress on their fitness goals. Again, everyone is different and weight is not the overall indicator of health, it does make me wonder whether fitness trackers have become, like other electronics, more about appearance than health.

While I have not delved entirely in to all of the settings of either Google Fit or Fitbit, I do know that there is much more to them than just step tracking. For instance, one can track sleep, heart rate, calories, and even set reminders to move. When set up with an exercise routine, it can make sure you are getting the most benefit by checking vitals. Even with all of that, for those who use them for step tracking, are you really checking it for health benefits.

On my Fitbit, I have reminders set that if I remain sedentary for too long, it basically tells me to quit being lazy. If I want to maximize my health, I need to keep moving. Do all fitness tracker people take advantage of this? If you look down and see that you only took 5000 steps that day, are you getting up to move?

I may be the odd one in all of this, but I feel a sense of guilt if I don't see the number I am looking for. My watch, as well as my Fitbit, remind me to move so that I can attempt to stay healthy. I know many that use these devices for exactly what they were created for, and yet, I also see many that seem to be oblivious to the health benefits they can bring. This makes me wonder if fitness trackers are still mainly a tool to stay healthy or if they have become a trendy wearable that people like to show off.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

iPhone 7

It is that time again: Apple has launched a new iPhone, and the masses will flock tomorrow to get their hands on the "best one yet". However, I believe that this line is beginning to be slightly misleading. Is it the best iPhone? Yes. Is it the best phone? I would say no. At the same time, I do believe that it is a solid device. Admittedly, I have not had an iPhone since 4; I also had a MacBook Pro and iPad 2 at the time. I used to be fully in the iCorner. I believed that the ecosystem they designed was unbeatable, and their hardware was second-to-none. These days I have a slightly different perspective. That is a different story, however. Let's look at the iPhone 7 (and plus) just on its own merits. In the days of 6" plus screens, built in DSLR's (hyperbole), and pixel-less screens, the iPhone is a jack-of-all trades, master of none. I have not personally tested the phone, but like all tech announcements, I watched the live streaming event. I did not see any...

Trust Indicators and Fake News

It is no secret that we have a significant "Fake News" problem in the world today. Before everyone starts preparing their defenses for their favorite news sources, let me clarify that I am not talking about "Biased News". As much as President Trump likes to say it, CNN is not actually "Fake News" and neither is FOX, NBC, ABC, et cetera. Biased as these sites may be at times (mostly all the time), the news they are reporting is based in fact; it just has a very biased spin. I would think that functioning adults would be able to tell the difference between: "Trump signs healthcare reform in to law causing issues for middle-class" and "Trump seen punching babies on his way out of gentleman's club" While there is no way for me to know if the second statement ever happened (I highly doubt it), I would assume that most people would understand that one is fake and one is biased. Unfortunately, we seem to have reached a point that peop...

Mobile payments are the future, but how long will it take for us to get there?

We are all understandably protective of our money right? We conceal our cash when we are forced to open our wallets, keep our pin numbers to ourselves, and certainly do not just hand our credit cards off to just anyway. So, along those lines, I am curious how we as a society feel about mobile payments. Now, because I try to keep this blog open and understandable to all, I will not talk about the encryption of mobile payment nor the process of virtual card numbers and the like. I am curious as to the perception of the average person. Personally, I am all for mobile payment, and I love the convenience of simply pulling out my phone and then being on my way. I never have to worry about pulling out my card, trying to figure out whether to slide it or insert it, typing in my number, putting my pin number in, pulling it back out and in my wallet, and putting my wallet away; when I am waiting in line, I often already have my phone out anyway. There is so much potential in mobile payment. ...